Church Leaders give blessing to plastic free Easter Egg

Thu 21 Feb 2019

By Cara Bentley

A plastic-packaging free Easter egg has got the approval of the Archbishop of York and the Church of England's lead bishop for the environment.

The Meaningful Chocolate Company are well known for making chocolate products for Christian celebrations which highlight the Biblical narratives behind the festivals, such as making advent calendars that tell the gospel narrative of the Christmas story.

At Easter, their eggs include a 24 page copy of the story of Jesus' last days, death and ascension.

This year, in response to a poll which found that 96% of Christians think it is important for easter eggs to be plastic free and news that 11.5 million tonnes of food packaging waste is produced every year, their packaging will go plastic free.

In November 2018 1,000 Christians responded to a Survey Monkey asking them to rate how important it was for the Easter eggs the were to buy in 2019 to be plastic free 3.3% said not important, 33.28% Important, 63.58% very important.

David Marshall from the Meaningful Chocolate Company, who make the Real Easter Egg, said: "Easter eggs don't have to cost the earth. We have replaced plastic bags, tamper-seals and Best Before stickers with paper versions.

"There is still the same amount of chocolate in the Real Easter Egg and the box sizes are the same but the redesign means our Dark and Original Egg will save at least 5 tonnes of plastic and 175 tonnes of card in the next five years."

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said; "I am delighted that an Easter Egg, which shares the story of Easter, is leading the way by reducing packaging. Clearly there is demand for unnecessary plastic to be removed from food packaging and I encourage people to let other manufacturers know that changes can be achieved."

The Bishop of Sailsbury, The Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam, said; "As the lead bishop on the environment for the Church of England I am delighted that an Easter Egg, is taking seriously the care of our planet. This gets my approval. Indeed, the packaging of Easter eggs needs a revolution."

The card and foil will also be recyclable and the company say the chocolate will be fairtrade and contain no palm oil, said to have been responsible for about 8% of the world's deforestation between 1990 and 2008.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

Tell us what you think about our news service, what you want and how Premier fits into your news landscape. Take our quick survey!